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Despite arrests and jail stints, Anita M. Martin has continued “a lifetime of fraud and deceit
for literally decades,” a federal judge said yesterday in Columbus.

“She’s been punished before and it hasn’t made a difference,” U.S. District Judge James L.
Graham said as Martin waited to hear the punishment he would mete out for her latest
conviction.

Martin, 42, was in front of Graham after having pleaded guilty in January to collecting $221,500
in illegal tax refunds in 2003 and 2004 by filing false returns while working for Jackson Hewitt
Tax Service in Columbus.

Graham sentenced her to 18 months in prison and ordered her to repay the money she stole.

Martin’s attorney, Kort W. Gatterdam, argued that his client had an abusive childhood and an
early drug addiction but has gotten clean and is a different person than she was when she committed
the crimes.

“I realize my mistakes and realize what I’ve done,” said Martin, formerly of Columbus. “I’ve
done everything I could do to lay a foundation for a new life.”

Sentencing of Martin was a long time coming. She was negotiating with investigators in 2005 when
the case hit a snag.

She relocated and wasn’t found until 2011, when she was serving time in the Ohio Reformatory for
Women near Marysville for forgery and tampering with evidence.

Gatterdam asked Graham to make any sentence concurrent with the year Martin has left on her
state prison term.

But Graham said the federal prison term is to be served after that. He said only time will tell
whether Martin really has changed and won’t reoffend.

As part of the tax fraud, Martin forged W-2 forms for 62 unemployed people, filed their tax
returns and then split the refunds with them. She pleaded guilty in federal court to single counts
of tax-fraud conspiracy and filing a false tax return.

Her co-schemer, Fred J. Johnson, 42, was sentenced to a year in prison in 2010. In May, Graham
ordered Johnson back to prison for six months after he violated his probation.